Lakers Sign Ed Davis
EL SEGUNDO – The Los Angeles Lakers have signed free agent forward Ed Davis, it was announced today by General Manager Mitch Kupchak. Per team policy, terms of the agreement were not released.
“Ed is a versatile, young frontcourt player who, if he continues to work hard, will be a valuable contributor,” said Kupchak. “We look forward to him furthering his development with the Lakers and are excited by what we think he can offer our team.”
In the NBA game of seeking out "upside" that typically focuses on the draft, it's not too often that a team can acquire a young player with plenty of room to grow after four seasons, but the Lakers may have done just that in signing Ed Davis.
"As you know, we’re working on completion of our roster and we feel we’ve made significant improvements and changes and we’re happy to add a young player with a very promising future who’s going to continue to work and develop in this league in Ed Davis,” said Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak.
The 6-10, 225-pounder just turned 25 after his fourth NBA season, but spent much of the last two season behind All-Star caliber big men in Memphis in Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph.
"The minutes were tough there playing behind Marc and Zach and it was up and down," said Davis. "It was great playing behind both, learning every day in practice and games, just seeing how they score easy and for Marc, picking his brain on the defensive end. For Z-Bo, it’s just all the things coaches can’t really teach that he does, all the intangibles he has and learning from him every night helped me out a lot.
"I feel there’s a better opportunity here … (I'm) looking forward to this opportunity with this great franchise and looking to contribute every night. What I bring is athleticism, defense, running the floor, blocking shots, all the little things."
I like this pick up. Wish we could have locked him into a longer contract. Just hard to develop a guy on a 1 year deal when there's no guarantee he sticks around.
I wasn't too worried until we picked up Boozer. Davis wants/needs minutes, and Booz is obviously going to cut into them.
I've been following Davis closely for the past 3 years (fantasy basketball, lol), so I know the kind of numbers he's capable of putting up. I seriously hope we lock him up long term after this season. He'll bounce if he ends up buried in the depth chart again though.
agree...i also think they might share a lot of minutes on the court together as well with davis at the 5.
Ed Davis sounds like he is proud to be a Laker & ready to get to work!
Quote:
“I’m very excited. There’s just so much history here and the city has so much respect for the organization.
I’ve been working out at the practice facility the last couple of days and just walking through every day and looking at the pictures on the walls,
I’m like, ‘Man, this is history right here.’
It’s crazy that I’m about to be a part of it. I’m definitely looking forward to it.”
Ed may end up starting depending on how well he protects the rim.
Quote:
Defensively, however, Ed Davis showed the ability to drastically affect games. In his two full seasons in Toronto, he averaged 1.5 blocks per game per 36 minutes. He impacted opponent's ability to slash and drive to the rim, as John Wall learned the hard way here.
Defensively, Ed is still a force protecting the rim. Opponents are shooting 40.1% at the rim against Ed Davis for the season. That is better than Serge Ibaka, Roy Hibbert and Andre Drummond. His length, athleticism and explosiveness are still very valuable. His lack of growth offensively and physically limit his overall effectiveness, however.
_________________ Coach Vogel, Kidd, Hollins
Max slot : Kawhi
Last edited by Car54 on Sun Jul 27, 2014 4:12 pm; edited 1 time in total
Davis has a few admirable attributes. His blocking ability is spectacular. Last season, he blocked 1.9 shots per 36 minutes and had a 4.2 block percentage.
Beyond shot-blocking, his overall defense is strong. He allowed 102 points per 100 possessions last year—including 96 in Memphis—and totaled 2.4 defensive win shares while only playing 20.1 minutes per game. The year before, he allowed 101.
_________________ Coach Vogel, Kidd, Hollins
Max slot : Kawhi
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